Category: News

“I don’t care how many degrees you have on the wall, if you don’t know how to sell, you’re probably going to starve.”—George Forman

A lot of business owners think they are selling, when really all they are doing is marketing. Do you know the difference between the two?

It will cost you a lot of time, energy, and money if you don’t.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I hired a woman to help me make sales in my workshop business.

“Chellie, an editor is interested in your book!” my agent, Lisa Hagan, exclaimed happily. “I sent her a bunch of proposals, and she returned all of them to me except for yours! Now she wants to talk to you.”

My heart was thumping and my breath came fast. This could be the break we’d been waiting for. Lisa and I had been working together to find a publisher for my book, “The Wealthy Spirit” for over a year, through endless rounds of interest, rejections, almost-deals, and deals that fell through.

“Deb likes your book, but has some changes to suggest,” Lisa went on. “Here’s her number. Good luck!”

I love advertising my business through networking with other upbeat business people. There are many networking groups in every city—trade organizations, Chambers of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, national associations, etc.

But you don’t have to restrict yourself to business organizations. Parties are unofficial networking groups. One January, I was invited to a friend’s New Year’s Day party, and I only knew a few people there. My friend, Victoria, introduced me to a woman friend of hers who was reading my book and enjoying it.

“You have to meet George!” she told me. “He has your book and he has been faithfully reading it one page every day. He would love to meet you.”

Imagine

An inspirational radio show had me crying on the 405.

I was on my way from a holiday party in Palos Verdes to a family dinner in Chatsworth. I knew it would be a two-hour journey between parties, but was willing to pay that price to attend both. Tired of music stations, I searched the talk show formats. Political rants? No, thanks. News? Nope. Then I heard the familiar voice of Garrison Keillor, with his radio show, A Prairie Home Companion. Music, light banter, jokes, stories…ah, perfect!

Garrison started talking about John Lennon and his legacy of music. He wondered what people of the future 200 years from now would think of his memorial plaque in New York City that said “Strawberry Fields”—would they remember John and his music? Or would they think that someone grew strawberries there?

After light chuckles from the audience at that, Garrison announced a sing-along of John’s song, Imagine.

Each night, the little spider at my front gate works busily, weaving his web to catch his morning breakfast. He is diligent and hard-working, he studied design and construction, and he makes a fine web.

But very morning, I break his web apart as I pass through to collect my morning newspaper. I’m sure the spider sees the destruction and whines, “Why does this always happen to me? I work as hard as any other spider I know. I’m so unlucky! It’s not fair!”

I was speaking at a 12-step meeting recently, and this Twelve-Step program for Financial Stressaholics suddenly came to me. With a wink and a nod to Alcoholics Anonymous and twelve-step programs everywhere, here are the twelve steps to treat your money disorders – spending bulimia and income anorexia.

2011 is the year the world gets back on track with abundance and prosperity! Want to join with me to make that declaration come true?

My book, “The Wealthy Spirit: Daily Affirmations for Financial Stress Reduction” was designed to help people do this on a daily basis. Since it was first released in 2002, I have heard from people all over the world that the book has helped them master the six principles of prosperity.

I’ve gotten thousands of heart-warming emails from readers, but I missed having a place where we could all share together. And I often thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun if we could get everybody on the same page at the same time?